P12 - FISH & BOAT, April 2019 Fishing Getting the Good Oil By Ben Keen He and his friends used to head up FromGregLamprecht It goes without saying, Greg to Fraser Island and beach launch Lamprecht is one of QLD’sthere. DI also became very popular most well known and respected for beach launching, and we’d head reef anglers. Growing up in SEQ,up there for weeks on end. School Greg embraced fishing from a very holidays, we’d be up there for 6 young age and has continued overweeks. I don’t know how they got Greg and his 73-year- the course of his life to mould and us all up there with 3 three kids, and old Dad Terry. develop his skills at targeting the the boat with all the gear but they states most prized species. More re- did it, and I applaud them for that! cently, Greg has turned his attention You obviously know the DI area to educating anglers through his very well. Many fishos in SEQ tend Wicked Fishing DVDs. We thoughtto let their minds wander to that we would catch up with Greg andarea once they have been ‘round the find out a bit more about where it all bay a few times - what advice would began and see if we could squeeze a you give to anglers looking to ex- bit more good oil out of him! plore those waters? So, Greg, you grew up living in It’s not hard for us to spend 10, the Moreton Bay region, was that12, 15 hours straight just sounding your starting point as a fisho or did around, whether that be at night you look to bigger things straight while everyone is asleep or just me away? heading out in my smaller boat We didn’t spend much time fishing around the bay and spending an en- the bay, the old man was more into tire day searching for new marks. So offshore fishing. The majority was from scratch to do that, you’ve got to off Double Island Point - that was have a good mindset and patience, as where we spent most of our school well as a crew who understand that holidays. We also spent a bit of time you need to put the time in to find fishing off Evans Head in NSW. We marks to catch fish. You need the did a little bit off Moreton but the right electronic set-up including a majority of our time was spent off sounder that can read at speed. 90% DI. of our spots we find at speed. Obvi- How old were you when you first ously, speed helps you cover ground went offshore? a lot faster. Also, you need to be able Somewhere between 8 and 10 forto interpret what you’re seeing onHowever, you can fall into a trap. A my first proper offshore trip! your sounder. If you’re going over lot of people find marks by identi- Greg around 8 years old with What was your first memorablesomething at 25 knots, that’s not go-fying the fish life above a rock, anda big snapper caught in close catch? ing to come up as big as you might the fish life is what gives it away. At to Double Island point. Probably in close off DI, fishing think, so I look for “toothpicks”. nighttime, the fish life comes down less than a couple of Kilometers Essentially, by the time you have amongst the reef to rest and what off DI itself and around Wolf Rock run over it, it might only show as a may look like an exceptional spot in which is now a Green Zone. Catch- very small spot with only a minor daylight may look baron at night - ing nannies, red emperor, pearl perch, showing of fish life above and most so go back to spots during the day. big snapper and all those beautiful people would not identify that as be- I have actually been back to spots reef species in such close proximity ing exceptional but you have to keep at 4 o’clock in the morning waiting to DI was a very memorable expe- interpretation in mind, and thatfor the sun to come up and it doesn’t rience. One particular memory was small rock that you have just run look like much, but within 5 min- being anchored around Wolf Rockover at speed might actually be 10utes of the sun coming up, the fish and watching 3 or 4 lines goingmetres wide, and that is only iden-life rises, and it looks exceptional. So off with big snapper. You’re talking tifiable if you stop, go back and have when you’re travelling at night, keep 8kg plus snapper one after another. a slow run over it. You will want to in mind that little tiny rocks may not Spanish mackerel back then werehave the right transducer, and youshow much fish life but go back and thick, and back in those days, you will want to have it set up properly. check them when the sun comes up. could sell your fish. We’d go up there Once that evening bite has slowed Any tips for sounder manipula- and catch 30 or 40 Spaniards and on off, is that your strategy, to sound tion in terms of finding gold? the way home, drop them at Raptis aroundwhile the crew take a nap? With your sounder set-up, inter- Seafood and that’s how you’d pay for Yeah, absolutely, it does depend on pretation is a huge part of it. Make ally fish will show up a lot better, and Your crew, is it you plus 2? your trip. the crew and the season. For exam- sure you know the capabilities ofit will be a more accurate picture withGenerally, my old man comes every You’re obviously very close to ple, during summer, the nighttime your transducer, whether it’s a wide more details. I run 2Kw transducers time, he rarely misses a trip! He lives your dad, you still fish with him, northerly influences do make it dif- or narrow beam and obviously chirp so I can back the gain off quite a and breathes it. I usually take one or how long has he been fishing for? ficult to sound around effectively. is different again. So if you’re run- lot and make other adjustments to two other mates, but I prefer to keep He started fishing when he was However, winter months provide aning a narrow beam transducer, whattake out the smaller fish but keep init to 3 if I can as it makes bait, ice very young. He bought a Clarkgood opportunity to sound at night,you’re seeing on the bottom is a verymind when doing that, you may takeand food arrangements much easier. Abalone back in the day, in the 70s. and if it’s calm, I’ll sound all night. small scope of what’s there. Gener- out the corals and ferns, so I tend to I usually take the same crew, I can keep a lot of that in the picture. A lot trust them, they know what to do Inset: Having a great transducer set up is critical for sound- goes in to playing around with the and don’t have to be continuously gain, not running too much power to told, which helps everyone relax – ing at speed and finding new ground. Greg’s boat has 3 x see too much and not running too and you know you won’t get your thru-hull transducers mounted into a custom made fairing little and missing out on other im- marks ripped off!! block located in the keel of the boat. portant stuff. I have heard that you take $600 Can you tell us a bit about yourworth of bait on a 2-3 day red trip, rig, it obviously has been getting true or false?? the job done? False (laughs), bait-wise, we’ll It’s a 7m Riptide plate alloy (to- generally take 5-8kgs of mullet fil- tal length 7.6m). It has a Suzuki let, we’ll take whole mullet if we can DF350 duo prop. It’s 4.4l with lean get it at the right price. We take 2 x burn technology, so it has great 4kg boxes of IQF pilchards. We take economy. When going offshore, we 2 boxes of California squid which look at about 1.2 to 1.3 litres per km. generally gets you by for a 2-3 dayer. It doesn’t get switched off at all as I However, a big part of it is catching back up on all my spots – I don’t use hussar. Hussar is a big bait for us, so a parachute anchor. We back up on we use between 10 – 30 each trip. the fish and keep our lines below the Not 600 bucks but we take plenty. boat to stop them getting out on an What about livies? angle which is good for keeping your We don’t run them as often as “Double Or Nothing” a purpose- baits close to the bottom – obviously other people. A couple of reasons for built offshore machine. very important when chasing reds. that is we don’t really require them What’s your fuel tank size? for reds. If the bite is slow, we will 365L, I could have gone bigger, but try and get them as that may make we have quite a large under-floor the difference. But livies also attract esky, so I have tried to keep the deck what we call “vermin” - big cod, am- as clean as possible. I do have an op- berjack, samson fish – which is fine, tion of another 120L up under the all good from time to time but if front of the bunks, so we do have a you’re chasing reds, you want reds, so range of over 500Kms. Generally a we go more with the dead bait. trip of 2 – 3 days, we’ll do between 350 and 500Kms. Continued next page